How much does it cost to run a laptop?
About $1.66 a month on the typical usage below, at the U.S. average $0.1816/kWh. Set your own rate and usage and the figure updates instantly.
A laptop only draws ~20–100W while charging/working — a fraction of a desktop.
Running a laptop at 50W for 6 h a day costs about
This is not an affiliate link — we currently earn no commission from it. It is a plain retailer search, offered so the next step isn't a dead end.
A laptop is one of the cheapest things you can plug in. Unlike a desktop tower with a separate monitor, everything — screen, processor, storage — is built to run off a battery, so even at full tilt a laptop only draws 20 to 100 watts, and most of that happens while the battery is actively charging, not once it's topped off.
Run a laptop 6 hours a day and you're talking pennies a day, not dollars — a load that's genuinely hard to spot on a bill next to a fridge or a water heater. The real value of knowing the number isn't finding ways to cut it — there's not much slack left; it's a reality check: if your electric bill jumped, the laptop is almost never why.
What drives the cost of running a laptop
- Charging state: draw is highest while the battery is actively filling and drops off sharply once it hits 100%
- Screen brightness and size: the display is usually the single biggest power draw in a laptop, more than the CPU under normal use
- What you're doing: idle browsing or writing sits near the low end of the 20-100W range; video calls, gaming, or video editing push it toward the high end
How to cut it
- Lower screen brightness and enable battery-saver/power-saving mode — the display is usually the biggest single draw
- Let it sleep or hibernate instead of leaving it awake and plugged in when you step away
- Unplug or use a smart plug once it's fully charged — trickle draw after 100% is small but not zero
- Skip the gaming laptop or discrete GPU for everyday tasks if you have a choice — that's where laptop wattage climbs toward desktop territory
Data basis
- Electricity price
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B, June 2026 year to date, released 2026-08-26. Retrieved 2026-09-11. Average residential revenue per kWh. A benchmark average, not a utility tariff — it excludes the fixed charges, tiers, time-of-use windows, taxes and fuel adjustments on a real bill.
- Appliance energy
- A representative running power for a laptop, compiled from published manufacturer specifications and public appliance-energy guidance, and presented as a typical figure with the usual range shown above. It is not a measurement of your unit, and we do not claim a single primary source for it — the nameplate on your appliance, or an hour with a plug-in energy meter, beats any typical figure we can publish.
- Usage model
- Steady load — 50W for 6 h a day
- International prices
- rounded typical household tariffs for each market, in that market's own currency unless the row says US$ equivalent. These are planning benchmarks with no single primary source; enter the per-kWh price from your own bill for an accurate figure.
- Last reviewed
- 20 August 2026. Next scheduled review 20 February 2027.
- Corrections
- Think a figure is wrong? Tell us at corrections@watt-dollar.com and see our corrections policy.
Common questions
How much does it cost to run a laptop per month?
On the assumption shown above — 50W for 6 h a day — a laptop costs about $1.66 a month, or $19.89 a year, at $0.1816/kWh. That price is the U.S. average; set your own rate and usage above and the figure updates.
How is that worked out?
Power drawn while running x hours run per day. At 50W for 6 h a day that is 0.30 kWh a day, which at $0.1816/kWh costs $0.05 a day.
How can I cut the cost of running a laptop?
Lower screen brightness and enable battery-saver/power-saving mode — the display is usually the biggest single draw As a worked example: running it 4.8 h a day instead of 6 h takes it from $19.89 to $15.91 a year, about $3.98 less.
Does leaving my laptop plugged in all the time cost extra?
Barely. Once the battery hits 100%, a modern laptop's charger drops to a trickle — a watt or two at most — so leaving it plugged in overnight or all weekend adds only a fraction of a cent. It's not worth unplugging just to save money.
Why does my laptop use so much less power than my old desktop?
A desktop tower plus a separate monitor typically draws 100-300+ watts combined, while a laptop packs a lower-power mobile processor, integrated graphics, and an efficient built-in screen into one 20-100W package. That's the tradeoff for portability — less raw performance, but a fraction of the electricity cost.